Skiing
by thatpersonwhoisthatperson
Summary: What an original title...anyway. Sort of fluffy, in a way. Tony and Rhodey have planned a ski trip, and they're bringing Pepper along. The only problem is that she doesn't quite remember how to ski...
1. Chapter 1

**Note: So, in study hall today, I got a sudden urge to write a fic. A multi-chapter fic. -cue confetti once more- I would say that I don't know where I'm going with this, except I kinda sorta do. Kinda. Sorta. Yeah. Anyway, I asked my teacher if I could go to the library to work on my math, which I sort of did, because I looked up "algebra help" on Google...and that was about it...but I'm really sorry, my teacher. This just had to happen. So...I hope that the first bit is to your liking! Sorry for the shortness.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own! -exasperated sigh-**

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Pepper walked down to the workshop, arms full of papers that needed signing and a mug of coffee for Tony. She carefully balanced the piping hot coffee on the same arm that was holding the papers and hurriedly punched in the code, making the door swing open.

Tony and Rhodey were seated on the couch near the kitchenette, talking about something. Pepper noticed that Tony held a brochure in his hands, and was waving it around enthusiastically.

"Mr. Stark, I need you to sign…" she began, but was abruptly cut off.

"Hey, Pepper, have you ever skied before?" Tony asked her quite seriously.

She blanched. "Uh…I went with my roommates in college once or twice…why do you ask?"

"Great! Then it's settled," Tony decided, standing up. "Rhodey, help me pack the car."

Pepper raised an eyebrow. "What's settled?"

Tony held up the brochure in front of her face. There was a picture of a skier jumping high into the air off of a jump, and to the right, another picture, albeit smaller, of a group of skiers riding on a chairlift.

"We've planned a skiing trip," said Rhodey, grinning.

"Um, I hope you don't mean today, because…" Pepper paused only to pull out her Blackberry and bring up Tony's schedule, "…you have quite a few meetings, and there's papers that need signing, and…"

"Cancel them," Tony said, busy rummaging through a closet and eventually bringing out a pair of skis, a helmet, gloves, and a pair of boots.

"Where did you get those?" asked Pepper, who had never even knew that Tony skied, much less owned a pair.

He laughed. "I've been skiing since I was three, Potts."

There was nothing for it, then. Tony's mind was set. Pepper sighed audibly. "Fine, I suppose I'll just attend all those meetings in your place…" Pepper was cut off yet again,

"Oh, no, Miss Potts," said Tony, "You're coming with us."

00000

A couple of hours later, after a very long car ride in which Pepper was stuck in the back of Rhodey's truck while numerous ski stories of the past were shared between the two men, they arrived at the ski resort. Pepper hopped out of the car, feeling a little nervous about the fact that she hadn't skied in years and she would most likely make a fool of herself. She would have to stay as far away from Tony and Rhodey as possible.

The trek to the lodge was incredibly tiring. Pepper tripped over the mounds of snow they were climbing up nearly four times, and her legs were beginning to hurt from carrying the skis and the bag. They were going uphill instead of taking the trolley that Tony insisted would "take too long". _It would take a much shorter time riding up rather than having to stop every ten feet for me to recover myself,_ she thought miserably. Skiing, it seemed, was the one thing she couldn't do immaculately.

Putting on the equipment wasn't much better. Pepper struggled for the longest time with her ski boots, which didn't even fit because they were rented and the people always got the sizes wrong.

She eventually figured out that the three plastic strap-like things on the boots were to be hooked up to the array of ridges on the left of the boots. The first strap was relatively easy, and so she began to feel a bit more confident.

The second and third straps, however, would not budge when she tried to push them down so they would click.

Pepper swore under her breath like mad and began attempting to push them down. First she tried to do so using her hands, but even with all of her strength they would not go down.

She was getting extremely frustrated. _It's just the __**boots,**__ for goodness sake! If I can't even do this, how am I going to ski?!_

Pepper briefly considered asking Tony for help, for they were also in the locker room, but a bit further down. But no, she would do no such thing, because she was Pepper Potts, and she could handle any amount of stress at any given time. She was going to do this.

Next Pepper tried to hammer the buckles down, first with her other boot, then she got so desperate as to use one of her rented skis.

A hand came down to clasp her own.

"Need some help?" Tony was standing in front of her, looking down with an amused smile on his face.

Pepper blushed slightly. "Um…"

"Here," he said, and pushed the buckle all the way down in one try.

_Great, _she thought, but deep down she was grateful. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, Miss Potts," Tony said, and then, "Well, come on then! We're going to go straight up to the top, and you're going to show me your skiing skills."

_Oh, no._

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**To be continued.**

**Note: Hope you enjoyed. Please review! The next chapter should be up...um...this weekend, or whenever I get around to it. See, that's my problem with multi-chap fics-- I forget about them, which is why I try to write it all in one setting. Long story short, I am going to try and get the next chap up soon. **

**Review please! :D**


	2. Chapter 2

**Note: Well, I stayed up late last night getting ¾ of this chapter written on scraps of old homework :P. Also, just to clear things up, if some of you aren't sure, this won't be an 18-chapter story...I plan on making it 4, 5, maybe 6 chapters or less. I'm saving a bigger chapter story until after Iron Man 2 comes out...I think. Not sure yet. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: It's not mine...but the story is!**

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After Pepper finished putting on her snow gear, the three of them walked outside, Tony and Rhodey excited, Pepper feeling rather nauseous.

To think that her boots had been bad enough, her skis were a different story. Pepper accomplished one, making it click in sync with her boot, but when she tried to fasten the other one she ended up sliding all over the place. When she actually _did_ line her boot up with the ski accordingly, it simply would not click. Defeated, she called Tony over for help again, who simply smiled, bent down and fastened the ski to the boot securely. She silently admitted that she felt quite safe now that Tony had fastened her skis...

"Pepper! You coming?" Tony asked.

Reluctantly, all happy thoughts about Tony gone, she followed the two men forward.

00000

They all got in line for something, and Pepper realized with a twinge or fear that it was a chairlift. When she'd gone in college, they'd had to stop this thing for her. How was she supposed to get on it now?!

Closer and closer the line approached the offending chairs. Pepper wondered whether or not she would start to hyperventilate.

All too soon it was their turn. As soon as the people in front of them loaded, she took a deep breath and pushed off after Tony and Rhodey, gliding up to where they had to load. Tony put his arm in front of her to keep her from gliding off the platform, because she didn't quite remember how to stop herself. She was grateful.

The chair came forward...forward...forward...she looked up ahead for a fraction of a second and the seat of the chair came to bang into her thighs, and she gave a surprised gasp as she was flung backwards into the chair.

"Are you okay?" Tony asked her, a little worried.

Pepper gave a small exasperated sigh. "Yeah, I'm fine," she lied, forcing a smile.

Tony smiled back, and she closed her eyes and leaned back into her chair.

Tony and Rhodey talked about random things, and occasionally Pepper would respond to something they were saying with "mmm" or "yes". She was surprised at how high up they were. One could see the skiers going off jumps and stuff down below, and to their left and right were woods.

One skier flew up a jump, but failed and fell down, landing _splat_ in the snow. Pepper got nervous again. _Is that what's going to happen to me?_

However, Tony and Rhodey began to snicker.

"Hey! You! With the face! Yeah, you! Can you fall over?!" Tony screamed to a nearby snowboarder down below.

"Yeah, can you wipe out, or something, please?!" Rhodey contributed.

Pepper was mortified and shrunk in her seat. "Tony," she hissed through her teeth, "you can't just..._yell_ at people like that! We're going to get in trouble..."

She was interrupted by shouts of approval from Tony and Rhodey. The snowboarder had jumped off a small hill on the slope below, lost balance halfway through the air, and landed uncomfortably in the snow. Pepper sucked in a breath. _Doesn't that hurt?!_

"Great job! You're improving!" shouted Tony while Rhodey hollered and clapped. The snowboarder flipped them off, displeased.

"Someone's going to yell at us!" cried Pepper in horror, as she noticed a bunch of staff riding the chair in front of them.

"Nah, they won't mind," Tony said rather nonchalantly. "We do this all the time!"

"Yeah, we're _known_ on this mountain," laughed Rhodey.

Pepper sighed. The yelling continued, however, and occasionally some people would yell back. The ride was silent for a while, until quite suddenly, Tony proceeded to lift the bar on the chair up and back, as Pepper could see the loading station up ahead. They were still quite a few feet from the ground, and a large distance away from the unloading station, in her opinion. Pepper felt her stomach drop a little.

"Guys! Put that back down! We're going to fall!" she nearly shrieked.

"It's not that far of a drop," said Rhodey, while Tony leaned over very far in his seat to accentuate it. "You could sprain or break something, but it's not enough to kill you."

This did not help Pepper's already dwindling confidence. "Tony, get back _up_! You're going to fall!"

He laughed. "Here, I'll give you a push and then you'll..." started Tony in a teasing way, but Pepper jabbed her pole into his leg and reached back to clutch the supporting bar for dear life.

"Don't you dare!" she yelled.

"I was kidding! You didn't have to hit me for it," he said, rubbing his offending leg.

"Try anything like that again and I will," Pepper replied darkly, but with a slight hint of amusement.

By now, it actually _was_ time to get off, Pepper realized a fraction too late. She landed her skis on the snow, went forward a few feet, then lost her balance and fell into a heap of powdery snow.

Chuckling, Tony helped her up while Pepper blushed furiously.

"Thanks," she mumbled, dusting herself off and trying to maintain what was left of her dignity.

"Where to?" asked Rhodey.

Tony pointed forward, and they were off.

00000

Pepper struggled to keep up once again, but failed miserably, as Tony and Rhodey were always ahead a few feet. They never got very far without stopping, however, as they would wait for Pepper to catch up with them a little. She was blushing the entire time, and the farther they went the more nervous she became. She took continued deep breaths in an attempt to quell the fear.

She dragged her skis along in the snow, shifting carefully along very slowly, in order not to fall and make more of a fool of herself. _This is probably the most humiliated I've felt in a __**long**__ time,_ she thought.

Finally they reached the slope, and Pepper discovered with a hint of dread that the trail they were about to tackle was rated with a blue square. She knew enough about skiing to know that a blue square was meant for intermediate skiers.

Pepper was no intermediate skier.

"Ready?" asked Tony, to which Rhodey nodded and so did Pepper, albeit a bit more feebly.

First Tony took off down the slope. Pepper watched, quite impressed. Once Tony was a few feet down, Rhodey pushed off as well. A bunch more skiers went whirring past her. _How do they __**go**__ that fast?!_ This just added to all the nerves.

She stalled, debating whether or not she should go, until a group of teenage snowboarders knocked into her, causing her skis to glide forward. Pepper took a deep breath. _Well, here goes nothing..._

Pepper attempted to carefully maneuver down the mountain with limited success. More than once her skis got caught on each other, and just about a quarter of the way down she had fallen a total of eleven times. A lot of small children flew by her once when she fell, with a lesson group. Pepper immediately felt a trifle less confident, but she sighed and got back up anyway. Sometimes, she would find that the little portion of what was her skiing knowledge would return to some extent; she remembered, after seeing a few other people doing it, that in order to stop she would need to get her skis in a "pizza" formation. Pepper did try this a few times, and she seemed to be falling considerably less, because she now had a way to slow down if she was going to fast for her liking.

A lot of the more advanced skiers who used the easier mountains to their advantage were turning rapidly across the slope and down the mountain. Pepper thought it looked rather intimidating.

She eventually found herself at a steeper part of the slope, which looked to Pepper as if it had a tiny bit of ice scattered across it. She briefly considered walking down it, but that wasn't an option when the mountain was so very crowded and the people would have to go around her, which would only annoy them and make them upset.

There was nothing for it, then. Pepper took another deep breath and pushed off from the safety of her stopping point.

Down the hill she flew, and for a brief second Pepper felt so carefree. It was...a lot of fun, actually.

Then she realized that she couldn't stop.

Happiness quickly turned to dread and fear. Pepper tried to move her skis into an acceptable stopping position, but lost her balance once more, and she was sent tumbling quite fast down the icy slope.

Pepper screamed. _Why, __**now**__ of all times, is there __**no one**__ on this mountain?!_

Then again, it was probably better, since there was no one to crash into her.

Pepper tumbled some more, and she made one last attempt in stretching out her legs to make her skis stop. Unfortunately, this only gave her a push into the woods, where Pepper now discovered she was headed.

Since this was a mountain—_A __**terrible**__ place to fall down,_ some part of her mind pointed out—the woods were now another hill for Pepper to roll down. She rolled this way and that, making pathetic attempts to stop, but she was completely out of control, even managing a backflip once or twice.

A part of her brain eventually alerted her that she needed to _stop_ before she ended up _way_ out of bounds. Pepper reached out her gloved hands and latched onto a nearby tree, finally stopping her continued tumbling.

Pepper steadied her breathing, then checked for damage. No signs of bleeding; her helmet was still on, but she had lost both her poles, and one ski had come off and landed about four feet or so down from where she currently resided. Pepper ached all over, though, from rolling over broken sticks and into trees and over ice. She could move everything, however; that was a good sign. She didn't feel delirious, either.

It suddenly crossed her mind that Tony and Rhodey had probably reached the bottom of the slope ages ago, and were now most likely on their way back up to look for her. She had a silent controversy trying to decide if it would be better if Tony formed a search party or not. What was worse was the fact that Tony was under the impression that she knew _how_ to ski. Which, quite clearly, she didn't...not really, anyway.

She groaned. _I should have taken a lesson_.

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**To be continued.**

**Note: Well, here was a longer chapter...probably the longest thing I've ever written for fanfiction in my entire life! :D Poor Pepper, I'm doing this at her expense... it'll get happier, though, don't worry. I hope this chapter isn't too angsty...actually I hope it isn't angsty at all, because this isn't supposed to be an angsty story. In the following chapters it'll be lighter. ...it's hard to explain! **

**Anyway, please review! (: and thank you for all your kind words so far, I appreciate it!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Note: So. Today I had the pleasure of falling off of my swing set (yes, I still swing on it while I listen to my iPod—quite an amazing and fun hobby, I must say). I hit my head really hard, so now there's this huge welt on my face. Pleasant, huh? Yeah. I might have a minor concussion! :P But, funny thing is, I saw scenes from Iron Man flash before my face right before I fell! It was amazing! :D -coughs- anyway. Please enjoy the next installment!**

**Disclaimer: Not mine, I only own the plot!**

Tony couldn't help but feel a little guilty that he hadn't waited for Pepper. Him and Rhodey were now riding up the chairlift back to the same particular slope they had...well, lost her on. They had waited at least ten minutes or so, joking about how she was so slow, but when she hadn't showed soon after that Tony began to grow puzzled. The path they took was clear cut, and it was pretty hard to get lost, at least in his opinion. Tony then remembered there was the fork in the path towards the end...Pepper could have very well gone to the left instead of the right...right?

"You know, she's probably waiting for us at the bottom, quite annoyed at that," Rhodey said while attempting to scan the ground below and trying to lighten Tony's spirits.

"Yeah," Tony said slowly, "or she got lost in the woods somewhere. Or she got run over by the plow. Or..."

"Okay, now you're just thinking _way_ too much into things, man," Rhodey replied. "Pepper's bound to be fine, she's tough like that."

They unloaded off of the lift and skied down towards their previous slope. Tony wasted no time in hurriedly skiing down, kicking up a lot of snow in the process.

Halfway down, Tony began to call out to her. "Pepper!"

Silence. The wind whipped around his ears and neck.

"Pepper!" he called out again, a bit louder this time. Where _was_ she?

00000

Pepper wasn't all entirely sure how long she'd been sitting at her place in these woods. _Probably not even half an hour,_ she mused. Pepper was a little surprised that she had not yet seen any emergency helicopter lights flying up ahead under Tony's orders. Not that she was complaining; this was not the type of thing one wanted to go public.

Over the course of her visit here, Pepper had snapped a few of the offending branches that had been continually scratching her facial area with her hands, and put the handwarmers she had brought along with her into her gloves to keep her hands warm. She had even been so bored and desperate as to build a miniature snowman on the ground.

After a few more minutes, within which Pepper was deeply considering constructing a whole colony of snowmen, she started to grow uneasy. What would happen if they didn't find her? Had she been out here long enough to go crazy? There wasn't much for food out here, she noted—just barren, snowy hills. Pepper shivered slightly. What if—

Pepper froze, her train of thought interrupted. _Had_ she been out here long enough to go crazy? Because she was pretty sure something just called out her name—

"Pepper!" It was louder this time. And she could have sworn it sounded an awful lot like...

"Tony?" she called to the wind and the trees. _Oh, lovely. They've found me, but how am I supposed to explain this..._

00000

Tony sighed, frustrated. Where did she _go_? Where _could_ she have gone? _Maybe I should throw a search party..._ he thought quite seriously.

_She's probably down at the bottom, genius,_ some other part of his mind pointed out.

_Hopefully,_ he retorted silently, and began to push off for the bottom when—

"Tony?" The sound was faint, and if Tony was not so attuned to the sound of Pepper's voice, he would not have heard it. Her voice, Tony realized with a pang of guilt, was coming from off to the right at the very bottom of the steepest part of the slope.

"Hold on, Pepper!" shouted Tony, skiing rapidly down to the edge of the woods.

He reached them in record time, and pushed his way through the thick bramble. Tony came across a small clearing, and in the center was Pepper, her back against a tree, looking up at him with a rather embarrassed look on her face.

00000

Pepper heard Tony call to her again, and she sighed out of humiliation as she realized that he was coming to get her. She tried to push herself up from her current position, but couldn't do so because her one ski that was still attached to her was stuck at a weird angle. She settled for leaning against her tree, and looked back up the hill to where the slope was.

Tony came half-running, half-sliding down to where she was; he must have unclasped his skis somewhere at the top. Rhodey followed after him.

Pepper shifted uncomfortably. "Oh, hello." She was not really sure what to say.

"What happened?" Tony demanded, his face full of worry and protective anger. "Are you hurt?"

She thought it was sweet that he cared so much, but told her heart to be quiet anyway. "Um, no, not that I know of..." she trailed off. "And I kind of fell. Down the hill." Pepper sighed. Better to do it now than never. "I have a confession to make. I don't know how to ski." She twiddled her thumbs together for the sake of not looking too awkward.

To Pepper's immense surprise, Tony and Rhodey started to snicker, which then turned into full-blown laughter.

This made her more humiliated, so she blushed. "What are you _laughing_ at?" she said crossly. "I thought, once upon a time, you were actually worried about this ordeal?"

Tony tried to control himself. "I don't know...I'm sorry, Pepper...you just say it like it's a crime, or something."

"Wait, why didn't you tell us this _before_ we took you up to this slope?" Rhodey inquired, a smirk still planted on his face.

"I don't know," Pepper sighed. "I didn't want to slow you down, I guess."

"Pepper, Pepper, Pepper," Tony said, shaking his head, amused. Then more seriously, "Are you _sure_ that you're not hurt? At all?"

She smiled slightly. "Yes, I'm sure. You think that I wouldn't check myself over after going through all that?" Tony laughed and reached out his hand to help her up. "Oh," she began again, "Can you, um, get my ski? It kind of fell down there..."

Tony slid down, grabbed the ski, then inspected it. "Well, the clasp is chipped a bit, and I don't think it's beyond what the rental shop can repair," he reported. "But you're gonna have to rent some new skis tomorrow, Peps."

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said hurriedly, but Tony cut her off with numerous accounts of "who cares" and "it's not your fault".

Once all three of them were back on the slope, Tony and Rhodey turned to face Pepper, grinning.

"Okay, Potts," Tony said, "this is your first official skiing lesson."

Pepper's eyes went wide. "But...can't I take a registered lesson?"

"Sorry, not an option," Rhodey stated.

"Now, fix your skis so that they're facing down the hill," Tony instructed her, "and don't worry about sliding forward—we'll be on either side of you.

"And...slowly push off...now," he continued.

"Yes, sir," Pepper grumbled, but did as she was told. Very slowly she inched across the slope, until she was slowly gaining speed, little by little.

When she started going too fast for her liking, she began to panic, and ended up flailing her arms out so wide as to hit both Tony and Rhodey's stomachs with the points of her poles.

"Guys! I can't stop!" she cried.

They skied back up to her level of speed. "Okay, now point your skis so they make a backwards "V" shape...no, the other way! A _backwards_ "V"!"

"And she's down," Rhodey said, causing them both to chuckle a bit.

Pepper huffed in annoyance. "It's _not_ funny."

Tony smiled softly. "Hey, you're doing fine for your first time. Everybody falls down at least once...Rhodes and I went once, and he fell down about six times on one of the easier trails."

"It was icy," Rhodey countered to defend himself.

"Point is," Tony continued, "that you're not going to learn to do it right if you don't make mistakes first."

Rhodey whistled. "That's deep, man." Tony thwacked him with a pole.

Pepper laughed, then got up again and tried once more. Eventually, she made it down the remainder of the slope, making the backwards "V" shape in order to stop, which she later remembered as the "pizza" method her college friends had taught her. She was quite excited when she got back to the lodge, and was contentedly happy as she put her rented skis back over the counter.

00000

The lodge was crowded, but they were able to snag a table to sit and eat. Tony and Rhodey listened intently as Pepper told her whole story, which for the record scored quite high in reference to the most traumatizing events of her life.

Pepper sipped slowly at a hot chocolate as she listened to Tony tell one story of a ski experience when he was younger.

"I must have been about seven or eight," Tony started. "We were up in Aspen for Christmas Break, and when I was halfway up to the mountain on the chairlift, I accidentally kicked my skis together a little too hard, and the one went down to the ground and hit some poor kid on the back. He got knocked to the ground."

Pepper sputtered into her drink. "Was he okay?"

"Yeah, sure, he got back up...I think..." Tony trailed off and him and Rhodey snickered loudly.

"You're so mean," she sighed, shaking her head, setting down her drink on the table. Tony took all three of their drinks and lobbed them over to a nearby trashcan. One of them missed and the leftovers spilled on a person's snowboard.

This brought another fresh batch of laughter from Tony and Rhodey. "Oops," Tony laughed.

"Honestly," Pepper muttered, and followed them to the elevator up to their suite.

Late that night, watching random television, Tony sat down next to Pepper and said, "Tomorrow, we're going to teach you how to turn."

She looked back at him in horror. "You mean, like what I see every other person do...?"

"Uh huh."

Pepper groaned and leaned back into the couch cushions.

There was silence again, until Tony said, "I hope you're having fun."

She opened her eyes again and smiled. "I am. It's a lot of fun...thank you."

Tony smiled back at her, then left for bed.

Once he was gone, Pepper smiled very wide and found that she couldn't stop her heart from beating real fast.

_But I hope I don't make too much of a fool of myself tomorrow...it was bad enough today._

**To be continued.**

**Note: Hope you enjoyed, now I'm off to lecture my brother on the importance of capitalization and good grammar in a school project... Please review! (:**


	4. Chapter 4

**Note: I'm sorry for the lateness of this chapter...I had a tennis lesson yesterday, and when I came home I immediately sat down to write this like a diligent little girl, but before I realized it, it was after eight o'clock, and my parents disapprove computer time after eight. Pity, really. And today, I had an after school band rehearsal (not to mention have the Late Bus drop me off at the very top of my block, and walk all the way home from there, in flats no less, which gave me blisters...ouch). So, I didn't get home until approximately...fifteen minutes ago! Anyway, sorry for its lateness...although, it's only one day late, but late is late. :P Alright, enough with the notes: enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own IM or the characters; they are Marvel's. But I borrow them! :)**

Pepper awoke the following morning realizing that she had fallen asleep on a couch. _Which couch...it can't be at home, can it...?_

Almost right after she thought this, the memories of yesterday came flooding back. _Oh, __**this**__ couch._ She sighed, sat up slightly and stretched her arms above her head. She found that she was still wearing her jeans and sweater from yesterday as well.

Pepper walked back to the bathroom to get ready quickly, for yesterday in the elevator on the way up to their suite, Tony had told her that they always left very early in the morning. She skidded to a halt and backed up a few steps to snag a quick glance at the clock in the kitchen. It read 6:47am. This was nothing out of the ordinary, for Pepper was always up promptly at 5:00am each and every morning to get ready for work, and weekends were a similar routine because her body was so used to it.

She decided while brushing her hair that the whole skiing ordeal wasn't so bad anymore. It was merely something else she could learn how to do if she paid close attention to Tony's and Rhodey's meticulous instructions.

Once ready, Pepper stepped out to wait by the door, only to see Tony and Rhodey standing there, bags lined up and all set to go. Hers was there as well.

"Took you long enough," Tony joked, grinning. "We have a lot to accomplish today, Miss Potts."

"I'll try to keep up," she sighed, smiling, as she swung the backpack that held her boots and other snow equipment onto her back. Lifting up her ski bag, she followed them out the door to where the car was waiting.

00000

If Pepper thought the mountain was crowded yesterday, it was nothing compared to today. The lines to the chairlifts stretched way far back, and there was a mob—that was the only suitable way to describe it—of people skiing down the slopes.

She imagined herself holding up the mob of people by falling and her stomach churned uncomfortably.

Pepper never had a chance to go back inside the lodge (in order to save herself the embarrassment she knew would come), however, because Tony linked her arm through his and almost unwillingly dragged her along to a chairlift on the far left of the lodge, albeit a smaller chairlift.

Once they were up closer, Pepper noticed that the hill—if it even deserved to be called that—was not very steep. At all. The muscles in her stomach relaxed a great deal, but she couldn't help feeling embarrassed that she had to ski on...this. Most of the people here were two or ten years old, despite the occasional snowboarder taking advantage of the tiny slope. The chairlift leading up to the top of this hill only held two people, and was hardly a quarter of the length of the chairlift that she had previously ridden.

"This, Pepper Potts, is the Bunny Hill," said Tony.

_The Bunny Hill?! _She was the only grown woman on this thing, it seemed. Great.

Tony and Rhodey pushed off, and she helplessly shuffled over to the small, beaten-up chairlift.

"Rhodey, you're going by yourself. I'm taking Pepper." Tony instructed.

"You're shunning me?" Rhodey laughed.

"You bet."

"Hey! The line's moving," Pepper said, and they skied up to where they were supposed to be. This time, Pepper loaded the chair without any hesitation. She was starting to catch the hang of things.

The chairlift bounced along the rope, creaking along slowly but surely. Pepper wondered aloud if anyone had ever fallen from this rickety old thing.

"No...at least, I don't think so," Tony replied thoughtfully. "Although there was one time that a teenage kid purposely jumped right off one of the higher lifts."

"Wouldn't he break a bone, though? Was he _trying _to get himself killed?" asked Pepper in shock.

"Well, it wasn't _that _far up. Just ten feet, probably..."

"Ten feet?!"

Tony laughed. "Relax, Pepper, it's not as high up as one might think."

"Why, have you fallen from ten feet before?"

"A couple times, maybe a bit more than that, too...in the suit, though, Pepper," he added as her eyes widened in shock at the thought of him dropping from high in the air—well, high to her, anyway.

They unloaded and glided to the edge of the Bunny Hill's slope, and a couple of seconds later Rhodey joined them.

"Alright, now," Tony began, "Just go down the slope, stopping with the "V" still, but as you're doing that try to turn across the slope back and forth."

"Um...okay." Pepper pushed off with her poles and gained a little speed, then twisted her body until she was almost going sideways across the slope. She turned again, this time to the right, and when she was going too fast she would stop with the backwards "V". Pepper smiled and closed her eyes as she was approaching the bottom, but lost her balance and fell. _Oops._

Tony and Rhodey circled her, chuckling. "Always stay focused," Rhodey instructed her, "Otherwise you'll fall, like so. Think we should show her the safety video?"

Tony shook his head. "Nah, you don't need to watch that in order to ski. All you need to know is that if you lose control, you could crash into a tree and possibly die. Which you're lucky that it didn't happen to you the first time, Potts."

"What?!" she cried.

"I don't really think it helped her any by telling her that," said Rhodey.

"Don't be scared," Tony told her, "just always stay focused and you'll be fine. Now, do you think you're ready to try something a bit different?"

"Yes," came Pepper's slight stammer—she was desperately trying to sound confident, even if she didn't exactly feel it.

"Alright, come on, then." They skied back to the chairlift and rode it once more.

At the top again, Tony turned to Pepper and said, "Okay. Now, whenever you go to turn—because that's what you should be doing when you ski—instead of staying in your "pizza" or whatever you call it, arrange your skis so that they are parallel to the top of the slope, like this..." he paused and maneuvered his skis so that they were now horizontal to the slope, and not vertical. "Got it?"

Trying to take this all in, Pepper simply nodded. "Uh huh. I think so."

"Good. Now try it, but go a bit slow, 'cause you might fall on your first few times."

"First few times?!" _Isn't this supposed to be easy to learn? _she wondered.

Tony shrugged. "You might pick it up quick. Who knows?"

"Think of it this way," Rhodey chimed in, "when you point your skis parallel to the top, it makes you slow down, because you're no longer speeding straight down the mountain." He bent down slightly and drew a squiggly figurine in the snow with his pole. "Take the stairs," he said, then drew a straight line through the squiggles, "not the elevator."

"Plus, turning is a lot easier a stopping method than the "V"," Tony explained further. "It's faster and is less likely to make you fall in the long run. ...Are you following this so far?" he questioned at Pepper's furrowed brow.

"Yeah...so, my skis have to go like this," she arranged them in the position that Tony had demonstrated before, "when I turn across the mountain?"

"That's pretty much the gist of it." Tony nodded in approval. "Now, try it out."

Pepper took a deep breath and pushed off.

The first couple of times she did fall a bit, but after a while she got the hang of it. Around her sixth or seventh time, she felt like a pro.

Tony and Rhodey applauded as she performed a hockey stop after administering the numerous turns across the slope. Pepper smiled.

"Impressive, Pepper!" Tony grinned at her.

"Think you can handle a bigger mountain?" Rhodey asked.

"Not that one I went on the first time," she said quickly, waving her hands and backing away ever so slowly.

"You're good, but you're not ready for that yet," Tony laughed. "But you can certainly do a green circle."

Pepper instantly relaxed. A green circle symbolized an easy slope. Even though the Bunny Hill was a _lot _less steep than one of those trails, she felt she was ready for a challenge.

She followed Tony and Rhodey to the chairlift that led to the bigger, longer slopes, relatively content.

00000

The ride on the chairlift was much more enjoyable than the first time she'd been on, mostly because her previous nerves had all almost dissolved. Pepper laughed, shaking her head as Tony and Rhodey hollered at any random passerby they could come across below. Sometimes, she would yell with them. It was actually quite fun!

However, this was a different chairlift than the one they had ridden on Pepper's first time. This chairlift held six people, so they were riding up the mountain with three other people, who, Pepper discovered by the types of things they talked about amongst what she could hear of their conversation, were in their late twenties or early thirties; one was a woman, and the other two were men.

As Tony, Rhodey and occasionally Pepper would yell at people off of the lift, the other people on the lift were getting slightly miffed at the obnoxiousness.

Pepper didn't care, though. They could think what they wanted, she didn't know these people. She silently wondered when they were going to burst, for they kept shooting glances in Tony and Rhodey's direction whenever they would whoop or holler at someone below.

It was about two minutes later, when they were almost ready to unload the chairlift, that one of the men finally spoke. "Could you maybe be quiet? You guys are so obnoxious."

"You don't have to pay attention," Pepper replied coolly, surprised at how willing she was to push these people even further. _Must be the confidence, or something—_

The bar on the chairlift went up, as they were now approaching the unloading station. As Pepper was gliding off the chair, she saw one of the men smirk out of the corner of her eye, and suddenly she felt herself fall to the ground. _Ow! That's not very civil...although I wasn't acting very civil, either... _

"I'm sorry, I was being a bit rude," she tried to tell them, but her voice was muffled by her neck warmer, which had fallen up to cover her mouth, resulting in mumbled speech.

Tony, who had apparently noticed that she had fallen, glided over to where she was. "Hey! Did you trip her?!" he demanded, and Pepper saw a sudden flash of panic in their eyes. She smiled a giddy smile to herself underneath her neck warmer; Tony was defending her, in a way.

"Uh..." the culprit stammered, attempting to ski away, but Tony wouldn't have it.

"Listen here," he said darkly, "Don't ever lay another hand on her again, or I'll push _you _off of the _lift_."

"..." the man clearly had nothing else to say. Tony nodded once, and as soon as he turned back to Pepper, the man skied back to his friends, annoyed.

"Are you okay?" Tony asked her, worried. Rhodey came up behind him, and they helped her up and refastened her skis. Tony handed Pepper her poles, which she took with a small smile.

"I'm fine," she replied, laughing. "It's not entirely their fault—I pushed them forward, when I could have said nothing at all. And what we do _is_ a bit obnoxious..."

Obviously pleased that she wasn't hurt in any way, shape or form, Tony smirked. "Nah."

"_Nah_?! Tony, people flip us off...!"

"Well, yeah...but the people who actually _respond _are pretty cool, so it's definitely worth it," Rhodey responded.

Pepper sighed. "Are we going to go on the slope or not? The sooner I get this over with, the better..."

"Oh, right, yeah! Let's go! And Pepper, stop worrying so much. You can do it," Tony encouraged her. He gave her back a playful shove towards the slope. "Let's away."

**To be continued.**

**Note: I stand corrected: **_**this **_**is the longest thing I've ever written for fanfiction in my entire life! :D Yaaaay! And I'm thinking that the next chapter will be the last chapter...it's sad to see my very first story finish! Anyway... Please review!! (:**


	5. Chapter 5

**Note: Eurgh. Do you know what I hate? DBQ's—otherwise known as Document Based Questions, or, as I like to call them, Dumb Boring Questions. We had to do one in Social Studies recently...yeah, answering questions from a booklet and writing an essay about said questions is not fun, at least for me. To tell you the truth, I'm a cruddy non-fiction writer. My SS teacher gives us one every two months, too! And I tell you, that last one fried my brain. _ Grrr... although, I did receive a 4.5 out of 5 last DBQ, so I was quite proud—that's high for my standards in the essay world. Yippee!**

**So, sorry about the extreme lateness...the DBQ, on top of Religion class, hiking, bowling, and tennis and a small twinge of Writer's Block kept this chapter from coming to you. So sorry, and I hope you enjoy this installment (the last major installment of this story, anyway)!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own this movie, the characters, etc. Plot's mine, though.**

Pepper shuffled her skis over to the top of the slope, and planted her poles firmly in the ground. This didn't look _too_ bad; the slope was hardly anything major.

"Here we are," said Tony, and he nudged Pepper playfully. "Anytime you're ready. Just apply the same principles that you practiced earlier to this mountain."

Pepper's eyes widened as she noticed the capacity of people skiing down this one slope. "Isn't there a...less crowded place we could go?"

"I guess...but this is the easiest you're gonna get," Rhodey replied simply.

"What if someone crashes into me, and I fall?"

"Then you get back up and try again. It's called the "Right of Way"—the people in back of you are responsible for maneuvering around you so you don't crash," Tony assured her.

Pepper breathed a heavy sigh. "All right." She glided steadily forward, then eased into the turning routine.

_This isn't half bad, _she mused as she turned. _Left...right...leeeft! _She balanced herself,_ Right..._

Pepper was so immersed in her turns that she forgot to watch where she was going. At the last possible second she noticed a little girl about seven skiing directly in front of her, and—

_CRASH!_

Pepper toppled over in the snow, then immediately sat up, alarmed. _That's nice, Pepper, she probably broke a bone or something..._

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" Pepper inquired of the little girl. By this point, the girl had hoisted herself off of the ground, so Pepper scooted over a ways and retrieved the girl's poles, handing them to her.

"I'm okay," chirped the girl, unfazed, like this happened all the time and it wasn't out of the ordinary to get whacked to the ground by an adult. She then pushed off and continued to ski.

Pepper exhaled and began to stand up the way Tony and Rhodey had taught her. _Let's see, point the skis parallel to the top...one hand here...and up..._

Tony's laugh came from behind her, and she fell down again, startled. "Yeah, Pepper...that "Right of Way" thing goes for you, too..."

"I know! I'm looking at the ground so that I don't trip...maybe I should be looking up every now and again," Pepper muttered as Tony and Rhodey each grabbed one arm and lifted her up.

"You'll get used to it," said Tony. "You were doing great, though!"

"Yeah, well, that just ruined it for me," she sighed exasperatedly.

Tony cocked his head slightly and smiled warmly at her. "But no one was hurt, right? It's all good, then." At this point, Rhodey skied skillfully backwards, waving them along. "Come along, Miss Potts. In order to move on you need to complete this slope." With a fleeting smile Tony followed Rhodey down and around the curve, leaving Pepper with no choice but to follow if she didn't want to get lost; there were numerous paths branching out from this particular slope that led to black diamonds, which were ranked the hardest, and she absolutely did not want that.

"All right, now." Pepper tossed a quick glance up the slope where she had just come from, and once she was satisfied with the lack of human traffic, pushed off to tackle the rest of the trail.

She slowly skied the rest of the way down the slope, somewhat mortified, and being _extremely _careful not to crash into anybody, let alone have anyone crash into _her_, either.

There was one little icy patch down near a turn, and Pepper sucked in a breath, carefully advancing across it. _Every time I accomplish one thing, there just __**has**__ to be something else, doesn't there? _

Pepper found that that statement proved to be very true indeed, because just then a group of rambunctious kids came whizzing past her, causing a loss in Pepper's balance and control. She fell, but luckily steadied herself with her hands against a gray pole stuck haphazardly in the snow. _Funny...is that why this is here? To stop people like me from falling? No...can it?_

Pepper visibly relaxed and let out the breath she had been holding. She could now say that she had bad experiences with falling. _One would think I had a traumatizing ski experience as a child...maybe I could use it to my advantage and say that I got locked in a locker, or something. That way I wouldn't look like too much of a fool..._

She noticed that Tony and Rhodey had stopped a few feet from her in order to allow her some catch-up time. Pepper waved helplessly at them as to get their attention. Tony turned, saw Pepper, and chuckled at her haggard appearance, then opened his mouth to say something. Pepper never got to hear it, though, because the gray pole that she was clinging to was now spraying something at full force.

A white, powdery mist careened out the top of the pole, and caused it to rattle a little. Pepper let out a small scream, which brought more laughter from down below.

"What _is_ that stuff?!" she cried out to them, still clinging to the pole for lack of anything else to do—she couldn't necessarily ski _through _the swirling mist, at any rate.

Tony had now climbed up the hill a ways, in order to shout at a decibel Pepper could make out over the _whoosh_ing noise the pole was making. "That, Pepper, is the thing that makes the snow," he replied with a grin.

Pepper looked up at the mist—or rather, snow—that was rapidly churning out of the pole. "...Snow?"

"Yeah," said Tony, then added after seeing the look on Pepper's face before he revealed what it was, "It's not poison or anything...you can ski through it, it won't kill you. Though it _will _be a bit hard to see...here, take your goggles off from the top of your helmet and put them on your face."

"My...my what?" Pepper asked uncertainly, standing stricken and just _knowing _that if she even dared to ski through that as she was right now, she would no doubt go tumbling to the ground again. She decided that she was not going anywhere until that thing stopped. It was no use embarrassing herself any more than she already had.

"Goggles!" shouted Tony over the humming of the mechanical snow. He moved up the mountain a little more, until he was under the mist of snow. It was only a matter of time, however, before he reached the spot where Pepper was; she was still clutching the pole.

Pepper just stared at him. "How do _you _do that?" she asked, brows furrowed.

"It's not that bad...the goggles help a lot, though. Here..." Tony reached forward to the top of Pepper's helmet, grabbed the goggles off of it, and wiggled them around until they fit snuggly against her eyes and on the bridge of her nose.

Pepper blinked, for she had closed her eyes while Tony was rummaging with the goggles in fear that they might hit her there, and was suddenly taken aback by how close her and Tony were to each other.

Unwillingly, her body reacted, and so her mouth went a little dry and her heart started beating rapidly. Her breaths came in short rasps, and her skis lost their traction right at that moment, so Pepper found herself pushing forward until she came in contact with Tony...and they both went toppling to the ground.

Pepper gasped as they rolled a ways down the hill, only to be stopped by some plastic orange fencing on the side of the woods.

"Ow," Tony laughed, "Hey, Pepper, you okay?"

"I'm fine," she replied. Her dignity must have altogether got up and left right then. _Figures, _she thought to herself, _that's probably what they mean by "distractions"... Note to self: Never get distracted by Tony ever again, especially while skiing._

"Hey, lovebirds," called Rhodey in their general direction, which made Tony pointedly grin at Pepper while she blushed quite furiously. "Are you coming or not?"

Tony laughed and nudged Pepper along the trail, where Pepper took especial care _not_ to fall again, which she didn't, thank God. _At least I'm out of the mist._

00000

They took that run a couple more times, until Pepper felt very confident and was edging to try an intermediate trial. She silently wondered if this was the same person that had been so deathly afraid of skiing at the start of their little adventure.

Up the different chairlifts they went, sometimes yelling to the people below, sometimes not, and throughout the rest of the day Pepper had accomplished almost all of the easy and intermediate trails there were on this mountain. She was feeling quite pleased, to say the least.

What's more was that she hadn't fallen for the past seven trails that they had skied on.

Each of them made a hockey stop at the end of one of the intermediate trails, and Pepper smiled under her neck warmer, genuinely happy.

That quickly changed, however.

Tony and Rhodey led her to the chairlift that she had first went on. Tony turned to her, "Guess what's next?"

Pepper looked skeptical. "Are you sure I'll be able to make it down?"

He nodded decisively. "Absolutely."

And so she boarded the chairlift for her first black diamond.

00000

Pepper stared down the trail, a mix of nervousness and doubt crossing through her chest, which made her all the more uncertain. From what she could see, it looked almost identical to any other blue square trail on this mountain, but she had no idea what lay in store around that bend over there.

"You'll do fine, Pepper," Tony coaxed her, and Pepper sighed.

"If you say so..." she grumbled, obviously not budging.

Tony smiled softly. "Would I let anything happen to you?"

Silence. Pepper's heart beat a mile a minute.

Tony shifted uncomfortably, and coughed. "Yeah...here, watch how it's done."

He smiled at her, then pushed off, turning expertly down the hill. Pepper stood there for a few minutes more, the wind nipping at the exposed parts of her face.

Then she thought about it. Other than that first disaster, nothing truly bad had really happened to her, had it? She always seemed to make it worse than it really was. She never thought she would make it past the easy trail, or the intermediate trail, but she did. And so she could handle this one, too. Perhaps Tony was right. Would they have even considered bringing her here to tackle this trail if they didn't think she was capable? The answer was no.

Pepper smiled. Skiing was fun, and she was ready to take the challenge set before her.

She pushed her poles along through the snow, and moved her skis in harmony with them.

And gathered enough speed to push off and turn appropriately.

Down she flew, and for a second Pepper felt some déjà vu for the first few minutes, as she wasn't entirely in control. However, she fixed that quickly, and proceeded to maneuver perfect turns across the slope.

It was a rather amazing experience. The wind swirling around her, the feeling of being in control, smoothly moving across the hill while kicking up snow after she made a turn.

The trail was a bit powdery, however. As Pepper turned around the bend, feeling quite confident, she came across actual _mounds _of powdery snow scattered all around the trail.

Pepper stopped hurriedly, doing a double take at the sight before her. _Oh, no. _Her newfound enjoyment was gone now. She was bound to fall at some point.

_No, focus. You can get through this. _For what seemed like the millionth time that day, Pepper took a deep breath and resumed the massive amounts of turning.

It was surprisingly easier than it looked. A few times it felt as if she was about to lose her balance, but she stayed focused and recovered quickly, smiling to herself. The mounds of powder flew up in a huge spray of snow behind her. _Too much powder, too much powder... _she chanted over and over again in her mind, but the further Pepper made it down the slope, the less there was to fear.

Pepper was smiling quite wide by the time she reached the bottom, gaining just enough speed to glide up to where Tony and Rhodey were waiting for her.

"Well?" Tony asked, "Did you fall?"

"No," she replied in a happy tone, smiling broadly.

Tony returned her smile just as exuberantly. "See? Skiing's not that bad, now is it?"

Pepper laughed. "Not at all!"

**To be continued...sorta...**

**Note: Yeah, so, I lied...there's this chapter, and then later today or tomorrow after school, when I get reviews for this chapter (wink wink nudge nudge) I shall post the epilogue, which isn't ****much, roughly around 500 words, if that. So...hope this was to your liking!...even though when I reread it, it seemed a tad rushed...possibly? Eh, who knows. It's all good, though...I hope? :P**

**Please review!! :D**


	6. Chapter 6

**Note: As promised, here is the epilogue! Wow, I can't believe that this story is ending...I've become so accustomed to sitting down each day after school and writing a new chapter for all of you! :D Thanks so much for all of your reviews, they mean so much, and bring happiness to my otherwise dull and drab day! :P See, I warned you the epilogue wasn't much to rave about... (: But I hope you enjoy it anyway, it just kind of wraps things up a bit!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own IM—never have, never will...or **_**will**_** I? -plots evil scheme- XD**

* * *

All too soon, it was time to go home. Tony, Rhodey, and Pepper packed their bags—Pepper found this task to be much less grueling than the first time she had done it—checked out of the lodge, and headed towards the car. Pepper smiled, feeling unusually happy. It was the first time in ages that she'd had a vacation, and for once she wasn't caught up in worry about all the work there would be to make up. It was fun here, with Tony and Rhodey, learning how to ski, and she was glad that she had gone. Even though she had been afraid in the beginning of their trip, the whole experience had proved to be extremely fun. Pepper decided that this little vacation that Tony had all but forced her to take with him and Rhodey was probably the most fun and exciting vacation she'd had the pleasure of taking in a long time.

While Tony and Rhodey loaded the bags into the trunk of the truck, Pepper looked wistfully back at the mountain and smiled.

_Sure, I fell a lot, but at least I know now that it doesn't hurt as much as I had imagined it to. _

That fact was true; Pepper definitely wasn't afraid of falling down while skiing anymore. In fact, she wanted to ski again, maybe even pick it up as a part-time hobby.

"Thanks," she told Tony and Rhodey sincerely once they were settled in the truck, pulling out of the parking lot. "I had a nice time."

Rhodey nodded his head, smiling in appreciation. From his place in the front seat, Tony spun around, gently rested his hand on her knee, and smiled at her genuinely.

And Pepper decided that they would definitely have to go skiing again sometime soon.

* * *

**END.**

**Note: Well, that's the end! -wipes away a tear- I hope you all enjoyed this little piece of my avid imagination. Until next time, my dears. :D Please review!!**

**-Person**


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